May 13, 2008
Yesterday I learned a very basic lesson about gardening:
Don’t plant seeds on a windy day.
You’d think this would be obvious, along the lines of “Plants will die without water” or “In Vermont, you can still get frost in May.” But you know? I’ve never seen this obvious little item in the myriad gardening books I’ve read or browsed, even though some of them have been at the level of “Open the seed packet . . .”
But when the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the air temp is mild enough for T-shirts, even with a frisky breeze, well, one’s thoughts turn to planting. And when one is prone toward dreaminess, one tends to miss the obvious now and then.
I had the wit to cup the seeds in my hand against the air current, but not the presence of mind to realize that they weigh 0.00000001 oz. and are in fact designed by nature to convey themselves on the wind, tra la. So during that fragile moment when I plucked the minuscule seed between thumb and forefinger and moved it the few inches between my palm and the soil, whooosh! Away it went. Another one rolled off my fingertip and dropped out of sight outside the planter. A few more blew out of my cupped palm during a gust.
D’uh!!!
Makes me wonder how much seed is lost by farmers and larger-scale gardeners who use a broadcasting method. I have such a small garden that I plant each seed where it’s slated to grow rather than strew now, thin later (a practice encouraged by Mel Bartholomew in his Square Foot Gardening system. It works — unless you’re not paying attention and lose your seeds!).
One of life’s miracles that draws so many people to gardening is the process by which a microdot of matter grows into a flower, or food. Same concept applies to mammals, of course — we all came from a little seed we can’t see. But mammalian micro-matter is usually safe from wind, so take care when you’re planting. Else your zinnias and carrots might end up in somebody else’s yard!
Carolyn Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
Posted by: Opening the heart, gardens, gardening, yard, plants, cultivation, spring — Carolyn Haley
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Corn. Anything in the melon family. Maybe peas and beans. The little fluff of nothing of zinnias and carrots? No chance in the wind! What a GREAT story, Carolyn (says Meg with pangs of missing gardening)
Comment by Meg — May 16, 2008 @ 11:37 pm